Lions quarterback Jared Goff made NFL history on Monday night by completing every pass he threw, but his favorite play might have been the pass he caught.
On a trick play the Lions refer to as “Alcatraz,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown threw a pass to Goff in the end zone, which Goff caught for a touchdown. Goff said that to the best of his memory he had never caught a touchdown pass in his life at any level — not in college, high school or as a little kid.
“I think that’s my first one ever, all the way back to 7 years old,” Goff said. “I think that’s my first one.”
Goff said he and St. Brown have worked on the play for a couple years but the right situation to use it in a game had never come up before.
“That play’s been in a long time and we’ve never been in the right situation for it to be called. I think we actually have called it in a game before and if it’s not the right look I get out of it. But that was the right look,” Goff said.
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson drew up the play and gave it its name, for reasons Goff doesn’t know.
“We call it Alcatraz,” Goff said. “Ben’s called it Alcatraz for two or three years now. I guess I’ve never asked him why. There probably is a reason. I guess I should ask him why.”
It was the second consecutive game in which the Lions got a touchdown pass on a trick play, having scored on a hook and ladder the week before. Goff said there are more trick plays in the Lions’ playbook.
“We have these plays in the game plan a lot and they don’t always come up,” Goff said. “There has to be the right scenario for them. The hook and ladder was one and so was Alcatraz.”
